Going Ghost
by Blue Valour
Summary: While fighting a ghost, Danny gets caught in the line of fire from one of his parents' ecto-weapons and is injured. When he recovers, Danny discovers that something is now wrong with his ghost side. Can it be fixed?
1. Fight

Notes: This takes place before Danny finds out Jazz knows he's half-ghost. As a warning, there will be a death later on in the story.

I wrote this back around 2006. I thought I'd share it.

Let me give a big thank-you to all the beta-readers who took time out of their busy day to help me with this story:

phantom130 5  
Oceana Mist  
bluebug119  
The Cinderninja  
Aurora Borealis 97  
Scaevola2

You are all awesome!

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Ghost Fight  
**

"What's with the long face?" inquired Sam, as she and Tucker met up with him by his locker. Danny slammed it shut and glared at her, the dark circles apparent under his eyes.

"My parents-" he yawned, covering his mouth with a hand. "-were working on a new invention that caused a bunch of ghosts to escape from the portal." His eyelids felt so heavy. "I spent the rest of the night chasing them down." If only he could close them for a minute.

"Tough break man," Tucker sympathized. "Look on the bright side; you've got the whole period to catch up on your sleep. Mr. Lancer's showing us one of those literary movies."

"Joy," Sam said, bored already. A muffled sound brought both of their attentions to Danny, who had taken advantage of what little time there was between classes to sleep standing up. He was snoring softly. Sam didn't even bother raising an eyebrow because this had been the norm for the past week.

Without a word, Sam and Tucker each draped an arm around him and dragged him off to class.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

After school, Danny collapsed on the kitchen table. Lately, he had gained an ability to sleep anywhere; which came pretty handy, considering how little time he had to do that anymore.

"Danny?" called Jazz. "Can you help me?" Taking a deep breath, Danny raised his head off the table where it had been for the last few minutes. His sister took the chair opposite and laid down her binder.

"Huh?" He blinked sleepily. "I'm a little busy..." he trailed off, staring past his sister's face. Yawning, he propped an arm against his head.

"I can see." Jazz stated dryly. Lifting her pencil, she tapped it against her brother's nose. He rubbed where it touched. "It's only a few questions for my report." She took his silence as a yes. "Name the first thing that pops into your head when I read out this list."

"..." He closed his eyes.

"Laboratory,"

"...Sleep."

"Pink,"

"...Pillows."

"Always,"

"...Busy."

"Tank,"

"...Boom."

"Normal,"

"...Freak."

"Happy,"

"...Tired."

"Secret,"

"...Nap. Speaking of nap, I'm crashing." Danny peeled himself out of his chair and stumbled up the stairs into his room like a zombie.

Jazz looked at her notebook. It didn't have any word list in it, just pages of notes about Danny. "All because of that accident," Jazz mused. She turned to a fresh page and began writing.

_'Ah, sweet, sweet pillow,'_ Danny flung himself onto his bed with a bounce and snuggled into his pillow. It felt so good to just finally relax.

He suddenly felt cold. Shivering, he opened one eye and saw his icy breath. '_I'm not home,' _he thought, burying his face into his pillow. '_Go away.'_ But the coldness wouldn't leave him. A second puff of breath dragged him back onto his feet.

"This is not my day," he groaned. A flash of light later, Danny Phantom stood in his place. He fetched the thermos and phased through his bedroom wall, hoping that this would not be another all-nighter.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"You can't keep on doing this!" exclaimed Jazz. Danny frowned.

"Well, next time you don't have to drive me. I'll walk."

"That's not what I meant." Glancing at him staring through the car window didn't settle her fear that ghost hunting was getting to be too much for her little brother.

The rest of the trip was silent. After arriving at school, Danny muttered a quick goodbye before leaving and disappearing inside the school. Jazz got out of the car and waited; her little brother had forgotten to take his backpack with him. When he didn't return, she sighed and reached in through the car window to grab his bag, but it wasn't there. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but she shrugged it off. '_Maybe he didn't forget after all.'_

She drove off, leaving an invisible Danny breathing a sigh of relief.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

(During lunch period)

"You can't keep on doing this!" exclaimed Tucker, taking a bite out of his hamburger. Danny looked at him, annoyed.

"You're sounding just like Jazz," he groaned. "And that's bad."

"Why don't you take a break? Let Valerie handle a few ghosts," Tucker suggested.

"No!" Sam and Danny said at the same time, but their friend's attention was now on Valerie, sitting alone at the far end of the cafeteria.

"She looks so lonely," Tucker muttered dreamily. This just irritated Danny until his eyes caught Paulina sitting down at the popular table, laughing. Sam was not amused.

"Boys," she sighed.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Jack pounded up the stairs, eager to show off his and Maddie's latest invention. Unknowingly, he had startled his daughter into choking on her glass of milk.

"Ah, Jazz. Just the person I wanted to see," he grinned. Catching her breath, Jazz looked up to see her father holding a large gun of some sort. "Remember that hypothetical discussion we had about half-ghosts last week?" Her father paused to laugh, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "I never laughed harder." Jazz crossed her arms, not appreciating his sense of humour.

"Well, thanks to you, say hello to The Fenton Ghost Drain." She could now recognize the shower drain attached to the end of the odd-looking machine.

"It... drains ghosts?" she ventured, slightly confused.

"It does more than that Jazz. It sucks out the ectoplasm from them, their lifeblood, leaving the ghost weak and ripe for the picking." 'S_o it drains ghosts,'_ Jazz thought, worried.

A door slammed, signaling Danny's return. Jack's eyes lit up at the thought of showing another person The Fenton Ghost Drain.

Jazz sat down at the kitchen table and sighed. '_They were supposed to come up with a way to turn Danny back to normal,'_ she thought annoyed. Her parents knew far more about ghosts than she did, and so she had hoped to get them to help her without them knowing it. Now she may have made things worse.

"Sorry, Dad. Got a lot of homework, maybe later." She heard Danny dash up the stairs and slam his door shut. Her dad went off back to the lab, disappointed.

Jazz decided to head upstairs and talk with Danny. Gently, she knocked on his door.

"Danny? Is everything okay?" She listened for a response but there was none. "I'm coming in." The door creaked open slowly, and Jazz peeked in and gasped as a figure slammed into the wall beside her. There was a flash of light and there lay Danny Fenton. "Danny!" she cried out, rushing to his side. His face was covered in scratches and blood was trickling down from a split lip. His clothes, in contrast, were much better condition.

His eyes opened and he looked to his sister.

"Jazz..." he said weakly before trying to get up. "I-I can handle this. Go." But he couldn't stand. The room grew colder and a transparent entity came through the wall.

"Dad! Mom! Ghost!" Jazz yelled, in fear. She held her arms around Danny to protect him from the ghost as their parents barreled into the room with all their ghostly gadgets and serious faces.

The ghost, vaguely resembling a large cat, snarled at them.

"Nobody messes with the Fentons and gets away with it!" Jack declared, brandishing the Fenton Ghost Fisher. The large ghost cat lunged at him with its claws gleaming. Jack threw the line but it was all tangled up. Maddie intercepted the ghost using the Fenton Ghost Gauntlets to grab one of its paws and flipped it onto its back. Unfortunately, it phased through the floor and surprised her from behind, snarling as it kicked her through the window.

"Mom!" Jazz screamed as the blue jumpsuit disappeared from view.


	2. Danny!

**Chapter 2 – Danny!**

Jack threw down the Fenton Fisher and pulled out The Fenton Ghost Drain. His grin filled his entire face.

"I've been waiting for a chance to test this baby!" Taking aim; Jack fired upon the cat ghost causing it to howl in pain. Then, as the pink beam continued, it began to mewl and curl up into itself.

"Jazz, the thermos!" her father called. Jazz noticed it on the floor and grabbed it. Pulling herself to her feet, she aimed the uncapped thermos at the ghost.

It watched Jazz closely as she took a few steps towards it. Without warning, the cat leaped at her and before Jazz had a chance to react; it changed its target to her father, or more specifically: his gun. With one powerful swipe of its paw, the gun was knocked out of his grasp. It scattered onto the floor, shooting a few stray blasts before disappearing under Danny's bed.

Before the ghost could do more harm, a beam of light hit the creature and pulled it away into the thermos held in Jazz's hands. Everything was eerily quiet. Slowly, she lowered her arms, not caring that she was trembling. At the foreground of her mind was-

"Mom!" She ran to the shattered window, scanning the ground for any sign of her mother.

"I'm alright dear," Maddie replied from behind her. She put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. Jazz whirled around, confused.

"How-?"

"I'm not quite sure. It all happened so fast. I was falling from the window and the next thing I knew, I was back in the house" She hefted the ghost gauntlets. "Now where's that ghost?" Jazz smiled and answered by waving the thermos, then squeezed her mother in a tight hug, which was returned.

"Are you all alright?" Jack asked, concerned.

"Yes, but Danny's hurt..." Jazz looked back at the empty spot where Danny had been earlier. Immediately, everyone began searching for him, calling his name and hoping for an answer.

Jazz finally spotted him outside, on his back, almost as if he had fallen. It was right under the broken window.

"He's over here!" she called as she ran down the stairs and outside to him. "Everything's going to be alright, Danny." His lips and skin were drained of colour and she started to panic. He didn't appear to be breathing. "Mom! Dad!" Jazz's voice grew higher. His skin was sweaty and cool to the touch.

Her entire body seemed to move in slow motion as she tilted her little brother's head back and began to perform CPR. The world melted away in her tears, her attention entirely focused upon Danny's face.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Danny's heart had leaped into his throat when his mom went through that window. Despite his condition, he forced himself to transform and dive after her, phasing through the wall and catching her from hitting the hard ground. Quickly flying back into the room, he let her down and turned to continue the fight when his vision was abruptly interrupted by bright pink lights then... nothing.

He woke up in his bed, thoughts swirling around in his head. Had he gotten out of the way in time? Danny wondered. Wait a minute, what was he doing in bed? W_as it all just a dream?_A quick glance showed everything as it should be: no broken window, no shards of glass. In fact, there were no signs that a fight had ever taken place. He felt his face and looked himself over. There were no bruises, no cuts; he was perfectly fine. A yawn overtook him and he stretched. Man, if only he could feel this good all the time. Ghost hunting had left him on the brink of exhaustion, so waking up and feeling refreshed was a nice change.

He sat up and swung his legs over the edge. His entire body felt so relaxed, he regretted having to get up. Why did it have to be a school day? At least he had plenty of time to get ready; according to his clock, it was only 7 a.m. Gathering his will to move, he stood up and was surprised when his legs wobbled and gave way.

"Whoa!" Danny toppled to the ground. "Ok, maybe I slept too well." His sense of balance was out of whack, but he adjusted. He showered and dressed, wondering why these simple activities tired him. Blaming ghosts, he grabbed his backpack and carefully headed downstairs, one hand on the wall to keep himself steady.

His family was there, engaged in the usual. His mom and dad were working on another of their inventions, and Jazz was reading one of her thick books, but something was different. The atmosphere felt dull and dreary, and they all looked so... sad. Danny leaned against the door frame.

"What's wrong? Did somebody die?" he asked, his voice sounding a bit hoarse. Startled, Jack dropped the mug of coffee he had been about to drink and it shattered onto the floor. They stared at him as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Jazz's mouth hung open, which mirrored Maddie's expression perfectly. Quickly, Danny check himself over to make sure he wasn't in Phantom form. 'Ok. That's new.' he thought, confused.

"D-Danny?" Maddie whispered, covering her mouth with her hand. She approached him slowly, as if he were a fragile vase. Touching his face, his mother burst into tears and enveloped him in a hug as if her life depended on it. The others unfroze from their state of shock and soon he was in the middle of one big family hug.

"Danny!" they all exclaimed, crying and laughing at the same time. Danny was at a loss for words. His family was acting bizarre... well, more bizarre than usual. They dragged him over to the table, where he gratefully sat down to a huge plate of food that had been placed before him. Maddie, Jack and Jazz watched him from their respective seats as he took a bite.

"Mmmm, good," he said, smiling uneasily. Their intense stares unnerved him and pretty much killed his appetite. He got up and leaned against the chair. "Well, I should be getting to school. Got that history test today." '_...that I didn't study for. Joy,'_ he added silently.

"You... you have no idea what happened, do you?" Jazz said. He shrugged. She laid her hands on his shoulders, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before meeting his gaze. "You've been in a coma for the past three weeks." Jazz said with such a serious face that Danny had to laugh.

"What? Okay, I admit my balance is a little off today, but come on."

"Your sister's right, I'm afraid." Maddie said. She handed him a copy of that day's newspaper. His eyes widened when he saw the date. This had to be a joke. It had to.

"We were beginning to wonder if you would ever wake up. Ever since that ghost fight..." Jack trailed off. "Anyway, you should take it easy for a while, Danny. Frankly son, I'm amazed you're standing."

"You're serious? I dreamt a ghost trashed my room, but that really happened?" They nodded. Danny's head suddenly felt light as he tried to absorb all this. Had there been ghosts attacks while he was 'out'? That thought didn't sit well with him either. "I-I don't feel so good." He held a hand to his head.

"Jazz, please help your brother back to bed," Maddie requested. Jazz was way ahead of her, wrapping her arm around his shoulders and guiding him back upstairs. Once in bed again, Danny felt somewhat better. He shook his head in disbelief.

"What happened?" he asked her. Jazz bit her lip. She told him how she had found him. Danny was shocked to hear how close he had come to dying. The doctors were able to revive him, but since then, he had been in a deep coma. It had been a week ago that his family brought him home in hopes that familiar surroundings would help him recover.

"And it finally paid off," Jazz smiled, ruffling her brother's hair. "Welcome back."


	3. HalfGhost?

**Chapter 3 - Not Half-ghost?**

Soon Danny had recovered enough (to his family's satisfaction) to return to school. Nothing had changed there, except the date and the amount of backlogged homework.

Tucker and Sam had been helping him catch up with his classes. What surprised him, however, was the lack of ghost activity; he hadn't sensed a single ghost at all since his accident. Finally, Danny could focus on being a regular teenager, and do regular teenaged things, if only for a little while.

When he had first called his best friends, they were overjoyed to hear from him and questioned him over every single detail. He couldn't say what had knocked him senseless enough to put him in a coma, but they were more concerned about his well-being. The intensity of it touched his heart.

For a few days after he returned to school, the students would whisper about him, calling him 'the coma kid'. Even the teachers went out of their way to be extra nice to him. Danny was relieved when things settled down into the normal routine...which unfortunately included daily bullying from Dash.

"Hey Fentina," Dash taunted; cornering Danny by his locker. "My buddies and I decided to give you a few days off considering you were a vegetable for the past month." He grabbed the poor boy by his shoulders. "We've missed 'playing' with you." Dash said, as he shoved him into Danny's own locker, slamming the door behind him. Danny sighed. It would've been great if Dash had forgotten about him.

"Now that you're back," came Tucker's voice. "Dash has been letting up on me. It's like you're his favourite chew toy."

"No one's watching, Danny," came Sam's voice. Nodding, Danny gathered his concentration and willed himself to become intangible. Then he pushed against his locker door, fully expecting to phase right through it. Much to his confusion, nothing happened.

"Um, can you open it?" he asked, embarrassed. There was a pause, then Danny tumbled out onto the floor. Picking himself up, he thanked them, only to be thrown back to the ground again by Sam. A loud clang echoed throughout the hall. Hurt, he glared at her to find she wasn't even looking at him, but behind him instead.

"I am the BOX Ghost! You will bow before my power of all things square!" wailed the Box Ghost. "BEWARE! That this is but a taste." Now Danny could see the large dent where he had been standing before and the metal First Aid box that caused it. How did a ghost sneak up on him without him sensing it?

"I'm going ghost," Danny said, ready to transform. However, this time was different. There were no glowing rings, and the power he would feel, like a cool breeze, just wasn't there. "Going ghost!" Nope. "Go-go ghost. Ghosting! Why isn't it working?" he cried in frustration. The Box Ghost grinned as he floated several boxes.

"You cannot stop ME, puny human. Face the wrath of," he paused to read the closest box. "Various school supplies from Office Depot!" The contents burst forth. Packaged paper, erasers, paper clips and unsharpened pencils assailed the trio. Tucker rolled out of the way and whipped out the Fenton Thermos. Sam yelled at the ghost, distracting it for a moment. That was all Tucker needed. A blue beam caught the pudgy ghost, and he quickly disappeared into the thermos. The two friends flashed each other a grin and turned to face Danny's quizzical look.

"We've been kicking ghost butt lately," Tucker explained. "It's easy. It's only been that Box Ghost." He then did a poor imitation of the ghost's voice while twirling the thermos on one finger. Sam crossed her arms.

"If you would be more careful with the thermos and not drop it, we wouldn't have had to catch him over and over again." She snatched the thermos from him before turning her attention to her other best friend. "What happened, Danny?" A distressed Danny raked his fingers through his hair.

"I don't know, but..."He glanced around to see if they were alone. "I can't go ghost. I can't use my powers!" He felt like a giant target. If any ghosts attacked, what could ordinary Danny Fenton do?

"Maybe it's a fluke?" Tucker suggested.

"Danny, your ghost self needs to rest just like you did. You have been through a lot," Sam said, worried for him.

"You think so?" Hope trickled into his voice. "Yeah, maybe that's it." His powers would come back soon. Danny tried to push away his fears and concentrate on doing well on that history test he missed.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Days passed. Danny still couldn't do anything related with his ghost side. Fortunately, he didn't need to. The ghosts that used to keep him busy before were non-existent now, or they could've been there the whole time; he had no way to tell now without the chill of his ghost sense.

Instead of getting depressed, Danny was happy. His parents were happy too. His grades were getting steadily higher, and he had enough spare time to be bored. It was great, though he missed flying. The only thing that bothered him now were his headaches. He didn't know what was causing them but they alternated between sharp, stabbing jolts, and low, dull throbs. They got so bad once that the school sent him home.

He hadn't been doing anything stressful, just trying to stay awake through one of Mr. Lancer's exciting lectures on various dead poets. Danny's head had been bothering him all day. Then, about halfway through the period, it intensified into a full-blown migraine. Everything went black and he felt as if he were falling. He woke up on his back on the floor by his desk. The entire class had gathered around him with scared and shocked expressions.

Danny sighed. He was getting sick of people being worried about him. So what if he blacked out and lay twitching on the floor for 10 seconds? Everyone, except Dash, treated him like he was made of glass. '_I wish I had my ghost powers, then I could fly and clear my head...' _he thought wistfully.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Ahhhh!" cried Danny. He had taken a shower when he got home, hoping it would help 'wash away' his headache. On his way out of the bathroom, his eye had caught his reflection in the foggy mirror. Wiping it down, his face paled in horror. His hair was pure white.

"Danny! Are you alright?" his mother called.

"Yeah mom, just... uh, testing my voice!" Danny replied, thinking how lame that excuse was.

"This can't be good," he said to his reflection.


	4. Hairspray

AN: Sorry for the long wait. Here's the next chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Hairspray**

"Look on the bright side, now you don't have to go to the salon every day to maintain that white hair look because it's all natural. On the down side, I think this means something's wrong with your ghost side. " Tucker stated, while Danny frantically rummaged through the bathroom cabinets.

"I've gotta hide this!"

"Where's Sam?" asked Tucker.

"I don't want to worry her. When I saw her after I 'woke' up, she was crying about how she thought she would never see me again and I don't want to see her cry again. It was so unlike her."

"I cried too, ya know."

"Yeah, but that's different. Do you think dye would work?" There was so much stuff in these cabints, Danny just pulled everything out.

"Dude seriously; does it look like I would know?" Tucker raised an eyebrow. Danny groaned and put a hand against his aching head. "You ok?" his friend asked.

"Yeah, it's just a headache," Sighing, he continued searching through all the containers. "Does your family have any black hair dye?" He held up a bottle. "I don't want to walk around with my mom's hair colour; might look suspicious."

"Let me see what I have. There's a bunch of things I grabbed from my parents' bathroom. Odds are at least one of them is bound to be useful," Tucker replied, sifting through his backpack. "...Lipstick, make-up, reader's diagest... Ah, you're in luck!" He pulled out a box of black hair dye.

"Great. What do we do now?" Danny took the box and stared at it. Tucker shrugged.

"I don't know anything about this kind of stuff." A knock on the door startled them.

"Come on, Danny. You've been in there since forever. Other people need to use it." It was Jazz!

"Uh, uh, we'll be done soon!" Danny yelled.

"We? Who's there with you?" Slapping himself, he strained to think of a way to get rid of her. Luckily, Tucker came to the rescue, but he nearly gave Danny a heart attack in the process.

"Can you help? We had a little accident." Danny shot him a panicked look. Tucker gave him the "Relax, I've got it" look right back and he let Jazz into the bathroom. Danny squeezed his eyes shut and tried with all his might to be invisible.

"Oh my gosh, Danny! What happened to you?" came his sister's concerned voice.

"Uh, um..." She was going to find out! The evidence was staring her in the face. How could she not know now that he was half-ghost?

"Why did you bleach your hair?" Once again, Tucker stepped in with one of his fantastic stories.

"In lab class we were working with bleach and some of it splashed onto Danny's hair." Danny pretended to be elsewhere. That was a lame story. They didn't even have lab class today.

"That much bleach?" Jazz didn't buy that excuse. She sighed. '_The things that I do for my brother...'_ She made up the rest of the story for them. "Let me guess, you thought it would be a great idea to bleach the rest of his hair and then dye it black?"

"Uh, yeah," Tucker blinked. "I'm mean, yeah, that's exactly it." Danny stared at Tucker. It worked? Tucker flashed him a confident "Told ya so" grin. "But we're guys. We don't know a thing about this girl stuff." Tucker handed over the box.

"Please don't tell Mom or Dad, Jazz. Please?" Danny begged. Jazz sighed again.

"Ok, but you owe me."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"There. Now go wash the excess off." Jazz peeled off the black stained gloves and tossed them in the garbage.

"Thanks Jazz," Danny said, stepping once again into the shower. He looked like himself again, and for a brief moment, Jazz felt relieved. She knew that something was happening to him. Only his ghost form had white hair. It probably would go away... but what if it didn't? What if it got worse? She had to look further into this.

The sound of running water stopped and Danny stepped out, a towel around his waist. Tucker and Jazz stared.

"How's it look, guys?"

"Wow, " Tucker blurted out.

"What kind of bleach was that?" Jazz puzzled. Danny looked at the strands dangling in his face, then in the mirror. The dye had completely washed out. His hair was once again, snow white. He hung his head in defeat.

"You should tell Mom and Dad about this Danny. They may be able to help," Jazz offered.

"I can't. You know how they are. I really don't want to be a guinea pig and end up with possessed franken-hair. Please, there must be something you can do, Jazz. You're a genius!" Danny pleaded.

"I don't know..." Her little brother gave her the puppy-dog look. "...Ok. I can't believe you talked me into this."

"I will be your personal slave if you can solve this problem," Danny promised.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Danny, why does your hair look stranger than mine?" Sam asked as she met him and Tucker at their usual spot by the lockers. Danny tried again to flatten his hair with no success. He reminded her of the time she had dressed up Tucker to be goth. That look did not fit with Danny at all.

"Just wanted to try something different!" he said quickly, his face plastered with a big smile. A couple of classmates walking by snickered and threw small things, like raisins and pennies, at him.

Tucker spoke, "Yeah, after all, there was a chemical spill in lab class yester-ack-" Danny tried signaling Tucker to stop talking, but when that didn't work, he went for a more direct approach; cutting him off by wrapping his arm around his friend's neck.

"Lab class, what are you talking about? We didn't have..." A thought occurred to her. "Danny. Tell me what's going on." Danny looked extremely guilty and let his friend go. Tucker rubbed his neck, looking sorry that he had spoke without thinking.

"I-I didn't want to worry you Sam," He picked at a small piece of his hair, just enough to show her the white underneath. "It happened yesterday after I was sent home. Jazz helped with the black hairspray. She thinks it was bleach. I don't know what's going on either but it's like my ghost self is taking over." Sam's face paled.

"Hey Danny," Danny stiffened at the sound of his sister's voice.

"Jazz!" he squeaked. He turned to face her, his back against the lockers like a frightened animal. "H-how long have you been there?" He began to sweat nervously.

"Chill, I wasn't eavesdropping. I just came by to check on you." Danny gave a sigh of relief which he hoped Jazz saw as exasperation.

"I'm _fine_. I don't need constant spying on, ok? I'm 14, not 4," he unwillingly groaned and put a hand to his head, grimacing. Jazz became concerned.

"I have some Tylenol-" she offered.

"No, I'm fine."

"Another headache? Man, are you sure you're okay?" Tucker asked. Danny shuffled his feet in response.

"Danny," Jazz came closer but when she touched her brother, he pulled away, almost violently.

"I _said_ I'm fine, alright?" he yelled before storming off down the hall. Sam and Tucker went to catch up with him, but Jazz held them back.

"Guys, I'm seriously worried. Please keep an eye on him, and..." Jazz caught herself in mid-sentence. She had wanted to say, _'let me know if things get worse.'_, but didn't want to give even a hind that she knew about what was going on. Danny's ghost powers were his secret to tell her when he was ready. So instead she finished with, "...And look after him for me."

"Of course, Jazz. We're his friends," assured Sam.

"And friends don't let friends go without trying the latest installment of Doomed," added Tucker as he ran off after Danny, with the Goth trailing behind at a more leisurely pace.

Jazz hoped Danny would be okay. Her doubts nagged at her though and she couldn't stop thinking about what she had seen in that bathroom. Danny had seemed just as confused as she had been with his white hair. What had caused such a thing to happens? She knew of only one way she could help: by using her researching skills to figure out what was going on. Maybe the hair was an aftereffect of being in that coma, or maybe it was a symptom of something worse. Jazz was determined to find out. She had already lost her brother once, she was not going to lose him again.


	5. The Talk

**Chapter 5 - The Talk**

Jazz chose to not hang out with her friends after school that day because she wanted to focus on finding a way to help her brother. She had reached a dead-end in her own research. There was a serious lack of credible information on ghosts, so as a last resort, she asked her ghost-crazed parents for help. Jazz was careful not to tell them the real reason she wanted to know so much about ghosts. They blabbed on and on about ghosts, and Jazz tried to listen. Then her dad said something that snagged her attention.

"Wait, what did you say, Dad?" Jazz blinked and sat up, her interest renewed.

"About Ghost rats? They're tricky little buggers-"

"No!" She shook her head and gestured wildly with her arm in a backwards motion. "Right before that."

"That ghosts are purely ectoplasmic creatures?" supplied Maddie. Jazz nodded.

"Dad, you told me about one of your inventions that removed ectoplasm from a ghost, right? But if it were used on something that wasn't all ghost, hypothetically..." Jazz trailed off.

"...Would have less ectoplasm and therefore would be affected more than a normal ghost! Ha-ha!" exclaimed Jack, extremely pleased with himself. He looked lovingly at his wife and wrapped his arm around her. "Our daughter reminds me so much of you, Maddie."

"I'm not as obsessed as you two are," Jazz clarified as she stood up from her chair, almost knocking it to the floor, and left. Her annoyance died down as she went to her room to think.

Danny was only half-ghost, or at least not all ghost. That could mean he could be more susceptible to certain things than regular ghosts were, or vice-versa. The Fenton Ghost Drain seemed like the culprit responsible for her brother's recent accident. If he had lost too much ectoplasm... Was his white hair a sign or a side effect? Did the accident somehow cause him to lose control over his ghost side? Did his headaches have anything to do with it? She still had so many questions and some, maybe only Danny could answer. There was no point in telling him anything until she had some sort of solution or explanation.

Satisfied to have finally reached a decision, she sat on her bed and opened a book entitled, "DNA and You". There had to be something she could do to help.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Maddie, do you remember where I put the Fenton Ghost Drain?" Jack called up from the lab.

"Dear, it's wherever you put it last," his wife's voice replied. Jack looked at the empty stand anchored to the wall. There was a plaqure below it engraved with, "The Fenton Ghost Drain". Jack scratched his head.

"Hmm..." he mused before becoming completely distracted by the other Fenton inventions he had been playing with. On a nearby table, papers had been cleared to make room for action figures of ghosts and familiar looking people with orange and teal lab suits on.

"Take that ghost!" Jack declared using the Fenton Fisher to hook one of the evil-looking ghost figurines.

Suddenly, he paused. Setting everything down, Jack Fenton raced off to the Fenton bathroom.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Danny looked up at the Fenton Ghostcatcher. It glowed ominously back at him, echoing against his now glowing, green eyes. His head pounded as if someone were hitting him constantly with a 'two by four'. He tried not to wince. 'I wonder how human I'll be tomorrow.' he thought grimly. His transformation hadn't stopped with his hair. Danny was confused. He was becoming more ghostly but he still wasn't able to use any of his ghost powers.

"Ok. This'll be like restarting a computer; except it'll be me," Slowly taking a deep breath, he prepared to jump through the Ghostcatcher from the ladder he stood on. The last time he used it, it had separated his ghost and human halves. Danny was sure that it could fix whatever was wrong with him.

Using the Fenton Ghostcatcher seemed like a brilliant idea at the time but now he was having second thoughts. The sensation of having his ghost half being stripped from him wasn't exactly a pleasant one. Trying to stall, he thought back to the conversation he had with his friends over this...

_(Flashback)_

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Danny," Sam said after listening to his plan. Danny pointed to his eyes in frustration.

"I'm becoming more ghost by the minute!" he whispered. "If I don't use it, I could be stuck like this forever."

"You have no idea how it'll affect you in your state. It could make things worse," Sam reasoned. Tucker shrugged.

"It's pretty bad now, and you can't hide it forever. The sooner we get you back to normal, the better."

"Thanks, Tucker." Somehow, that didn't make Danny feel any better. At least his headache had let up.

"We're going to help," Sam stated firmly and from there, they began going over every little detail, starting with what happened before his coma. Danny didn't have much to add that they didn't already know. As they walked, they worked their way up to that day's events and questioned him about his headaches. He sighed.

"I've been having them ever since I woke up. They didn't bother me at first but lately..."

"And you didn't tell us because?" inquired Tucker, hurt.

"Because... Because I didn't think it was such a big deal. I didn't want anyone to worry." They walked a bit in silence. "But now, I'm beginning to think that it's connected to my 'problem'."

"You mean...?" Tucker started. Danny nodded.

"Every time I've had a really bad one, a part of me goes ghost."

"Maybe your ghost self's trying to tell you something?" Sam guessed.

"Then that's another reason for using the Ghost Catcher." Tucker pointed out.

"Yup," Danny agreed with him.

"Promise me, Danny." Danny looked at Sam, surprised at the pleading tone of her voice. "Promise me that you won't use it. At least not until you've given Tuck and me a chance to figure out another way..." The sky looked very interesting at that moment and Danny felt guilty.

"Alright, I promise."

_(End Flashback)_

"I'm sorry Sam," Danny whispered. She was his best friend; it hurt to betray her like this, but if there was even a small chance that this would work, he had to try. Bracing himself, he leapt through the glowing web.


	6. Nightmare

**Author's note: **This chapter contains the character death. This story's almost done. One more chapter to go.

* * *

**Chapter 6 - Nightmare**

Danny was sitting on his bed, staring numbly at his hands when Sam and Tucker found him.

He couldn't believe how stupid he had been. He had been willing to do anything to have things go back to normal, well, as normal as they had been. Instead, he had destroyed the one thing that had helped make his life more bearable. Why did he have to be such a selfish idiot?

"Danny, we came to check up on you-" Sam opened the door to his room. Immediately, the guilt poured on him. He had broken his promise to Sam. His friends had wanted to help him but he didn't even give them a chance, just went straight for the easy way out; the loser's way. Some hero he was.

"Hey! You're hair's back to normal and I'm not sorry to say that it looks like you've lost your glow too." Tucker smiled faltered when Danny failed to even look at him. He wasn't smiling either.

Danny lifted his shirt, showing them the bare skin where there used to be his suit. When it had first started appearing, they thought that it was a bruise, until it began to spread. Now, there was no evidence that it had ever been there and that relieved his friends.

"It's gone, all gone," He shook his head in disbelief and misery.

"Are your powers back to normal? Did it all just fix itself?" asked Sam, confused at Danny's behaviour. Shouldn't he be happy? Danny hesitated before giving a big sigh and shaking his head.

"No. They're gone. Everything's gone. I... I tried to fix the problem myself." An uncomfortable silence fell and Sam resisted the urge to strangle him.

"You used the Fenton Ghost Catcher!" Sam said angrily, crossing her arms. 'He used it even after he promised...'

"I thought you trusted us, man," Tucker voiced. Danny held in arms up in exasperation.

"I do! You guys don't know what it was like. You would've done the same," he defended himself.

"But," Tucker added, hurt. "we would've given our friends a chance."

"Tell us exactly what happened, Danny," Sam demanded. Danny sighed, running his hand through

his black hair. He always seemed to do that when he was nervous.

"It worked, sort of." he admitted. "It took out my ghost half but whatever was wrong with me... it affected him worse." Danny paused, gathering the will to go on. "Much worse."

_(Flashback)_

"Alright, it worked!" Danny and his phantom half high-fived each other. He had gone through the Ghostcatcher and everything looked just the way it should be.

"Of course it did. It was _our_ idea," Phantom said with a grin.

"Now about rebooting that computer..." Danny grinned. Phantom nodded and became intangible. His human half braced himself and waited. _Thump._ Danny opened his eyes after hearing that thump, only to see Phantom sprawled out on the floor. He rushed over to him.

"Wha-?" came Phantom's surprised voice. He tried getting up but the room wouldn't stop spinning. He put a hand to his head, hoping to steady it.

"What happened?" Danny asked, helping Phantom to sit up. This wasn't going according to plan. His other self just sat there, silent, in his arms. "Phantom!" he yelled. 'Whoa. That feels weird. I'm talking to myself.'

Phantom lifted his head, staring at him with half-open eyes. His ghostly aura, Danny noticed, was growing faint. They both seemed to realize what was happening.

"I-I can't..." whispered Phantom. Danny violently shook his head, refusing to listen.

"No! Don't go!" he cried. Phantom's gaze never left his, even as his body faded away, leaving a shocked 14 year old boy behind, staring at nothing; his arms empty.

_(End flashback)_

Tucker's face paled. Sam covered her mouth with her hand.

"Oh my gosh," she said softly, unable to believe what her best friend had just told her.

"I'm not a hero anymore, I'm not anything. You'd think that I'd feel incomplete or empty, but I feel... completely normal," Danny finished lamely, unable to look them in the eye. "I need some time to adjust guys."

"What about all the ghosts?" Tucker asked. "Who's going to do something about them?"

"Tucker," growled Danny. "I can't do anything! I don't have superpowers! I'm just an ordinary kid. What am I going to do? Scare them by getting stuffed into a locker by Dash? Ooo, that'll strike fear into them for sure!" He turned to the window. "Just...leave me alone." Sam left. Tucker reluctantly followed.

"Where are you going? We've got to talk some sense into him," he insisted. Sam shrugged, indifferent.

"Yeah, as if he'll listen to us; all he's concerned with is how this affects him," she replied, 'calmly' clenching her fists. Danny had broken his promise again. If he wanted to have a pity party, fine. Go right ahead. There were many things she had wanted to say, and probably all of them wouldn't have ended so nicely.

Tucker hung behind Sam, disheartened. His curiosity piqued when they ended up in the lab instead of outside.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Leave my family alone!" Danny Phantom yelled as he punched his arch nemesis. His eyes widened when his fist was caught and lifted above him, leaving him dangling in the air. The laugh he hated most rang around him. Vlad grinned, his fangs gleaming in the low light of the lab.

"My dear boy, what is it that makes you think you can stop me?" The older man gestured to the scene far below them. Danny gasped. Ghosts had surrounded his parents and more were appearing from the portal. They were horribly outnumbered, but they kept fighting, oblivious to the half-ghosts floating above them. They couldn't last much longer.

"Mom! Dad!" he yelled, and then gave a wordless cry of pain as Vlad tightened his dark gloved grip around his hand.

"There's no point Daniel. There's nothing you can do. After all, you're only human." And with that, he let go. It was then, Danny noticed his bare hands and regular clothes as gravity pulled him down.

He frantically tried to transform, to no avail. The beakers and boxes leaped up to greet him and he faintly wished he had cleaned up the lab like his parents told him to.

An eerily familiar voice whispered smugly in his ear and to his shock, Danny recognized it as his own.

"It's all your fault."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Danny screamed in terror. Thrashing, he found himself on the floor, caught in a blanket. It took him a few seconds to recognize his own room. The door burst open and he saw his parents carrying ghost weapons.

"Where's the ghost?" Jack yelled, scanning the room for what he was sure was terrorizing his son. Jazz peeked into the doorway.

"Sweetie, are you alright? You're trembling!" Maddie helped him back into bed and held him to calm him down.

"I-I had a nightmare," Danny said, wiping his sweat off his face. His mom rubbed his back in sympathy. "I'm fine, really."

"We're all here for you Danny. No ghost messes with a Fenton and gets away with it," assured Jack. His son smiled at his dad's enthusiasm.

"I'm lucky to have you guys," Danny said as he gave his mom a hug.


	7. Trust

**Chapter 7 - Trust**

Sam and Tucker had met at the Nasty Burger to discuss their plans; Sam with her salad and Tucker with his mighty meaty combo.

"I just don't feel right doing this behind his back," Tucker explained to Sam, pausing only to suck up the rest of his soda. "We're supposed to be friends."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him, and he's been hurt enough," Sam retorted. Tucker sighed.

"I guess," he muttered to himself. It wasn't long before their best friend showed up. Danny slid easily into the seat beside Tucker.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I didn't think it'd take so long getting here. So, what's the plan?" he asked eagerly. He looked so happy. The only indication of that being otherwise was the bags under his eyes; a sign that he had not been sleeping well. His grades had begun slipping again and he had trouble staying awake during class. Just like before, minus the ghost powers.

His friends had been busy lately, homework, chores, and various family-only events, they told him. Fearing that whatever he said had hurt them in anyway, he came up to them between classes one day and apologized. While they seemed happy that their best friend was starting to come to his senses, they were still busy as ever after school.

So when they asked him if he could meet them at their usual spot, he cheered up immediately. He had been worried that they were avoiding him, but he couldn't understand why. Nor did he care right now.

"I dunno," said Sam. "Is there anything good playing?"

"I've heard that they're showing 'When Aliens Attack'," Danny said. " It sounds interesting. Lots of despair, action and technology." He purposely added words he knew would grab their attention.

"I guess," said Tucker. He didn't look interested at all.

"You ok, Tuck?" asked Danny, concerned about his friend's lack of enthusiasm. Tucker shrugged and looked at Sam.

"I've just been feeling down lately," was his answer.

At the theatre, Danny was the only one of the trio that stayed through the entire movie. Sam and Tucker had gotten up in the middle, claiming an bathroom emergency and that they'd be right back. So Danny had waited, and waited. When he left, he was in a sour mood.

Now, without a doubt, he knew. He knew they were avoiding him on purpose!

"I'm getting to the bottom of this," he told himself as he rang up Sam's cell. After several rings, she picked up.

"Hey Danny; right now isn't the best time," she told him, her voice sounding rushed and laboured. Danny furrowed his eyebrows together.

"Sam, we need to talk. Is Tucker with you?" There were strange noises in the background. "Where are you?"

"Tucker, get out of the way!" she yelled over the sound of breaking glass. "I'll call you later." And she hung up. Hurriedly, he redialed. "Hello-"

"Are you in danger? Talk to me Sam!" Danny cried into the phone, unaware of the people staring at his outburst.

"-leave a message. ...-beep-" He tried reaching Tucker through his PDA but no luck.

"What the heck is going on?" he wondered.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Tucker! Do you want me to shoot you?" Sam said angrily as she blasted at the squid-like ectopus ghost. Tucker sucked it up in the Fenton Thermos.

"Hey, I have to get close enough to be able to use this thing you know," Tucker said. Looking around, he asked, "Where's the other one?" Sam felt an arm wrap her around her waist and lift her into the air.

"I think I know," she stated dryly, struggling to break free. Sam tossed the small ghost weapon to her partner. "Just don't hit me this time," she warned him.

"I miss once and now the whole world's against me," Tucker complained. Sam rolled her eyes, then paused as she saw a figure running towards them.

"Hurry, someone's coming!" Tucker shot grazed her shoulder but hit the ghost, causing it to lose its grip on it's captive. Sam landed, and held her shoulder while sending a glare over to Tucker.

"Sam! Tucker!" Danny rushed up to them, staring at the ghost. He put himself between them and the ghost, yelling as the ectopus regained its senses and lunged towards him... and into the thermos in Sam's hand. He looked around for more enemies but they were now alone. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Tucker assured. Danny looked angry.

"You were ghost hunting behind my back with my parents' stuff!" he accused them. Sam glared back.

"There's still ghosts around. Did you think that they would go away when you wanted them to?" His guilty expression pressed her to continue. "Danny, if you hadn't been feeling so sorry for yourself, you might have noticed that Tucker and I have been doing this all week! You didn't even notice the ghost that flew by right in front of you during lunch!" Danny blinked.

"That was a ghost?" Mentally, he slapped himself. Normally, his ghost sense would have alerted him... The thought saddened him again before he straightened up his stance. "Yeah, well you could have at least _asked_ before you borrowed them." Sam sighed.

"I'm sorry, okay? Tuck and I thought it be best that you weren't here when we were ghost hunting, in case you got hurt again..." she trailed off.

"Hey, that was all your idea," Tucker pointed out. "Ow!" he complained, rubbing his shoulder from where Sam punched him.

"That one's for being a lousy shot," said Sam. Danny couldn't help but chuckle. He wasn't mad anymore; only relieved that he had found out the reason behind their recent behaviour.

"Ok, ok. Well then, let's make a deal. I'll stop moping around and we'll kick some ghost butt, together," Danny offered. His eyes brightened in anticipation. He remembered this feeling; the feeling of being the hero. So what if he didn't have any powers? His friends proved that those weren't necessary for dealing with ghosts.

Tucker and Sam grinned. It had been a while since they'd seen their old Danny. Finally, things could start going back to normal, well as 'normal' as anything gets in Amity Park.

* * *

******Author Notes:** The story was supposed to have a sequel but I don't have the time to write one right now. Perhaps later. If you want to continue the story, go right ahead! I'd love to read what you come up with. Thank-you for all the reviews and comments. I enjoyed hearing from you! And thanks to all the beta readers who helped make this story shine. If I write another story, you will be the first betas I go to.


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